Maniac (2012)
Maniac is a 2012 French-American psychological slasher film directed by Franck Khalfoun and written by Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, and C.A. Rosenberg. The film was produced by the French film companies La Petite Reine and Studio 37. It stars Elijah Wood as Frank Zito, a brutal serial killer. The film also stars Nora Arnezeder, Jan Broberg, and America Olivo. Frank Zito is a mentally disturbed young man who has taken over his family's mannequin sales business after the recent death of his mother, who also moonlighted as a prostitute. Frank's childhood experiences of seeing his mother bring home clients or being taken out with her to turn tricks has left Frank unable to enter into meaningful relationships with women, and his sexual impulses tend to manifest themselves as violent urges that Frank externalizes as his mother's will. Struggling to come to grips with his mother's treatment of him, and spurred by memories of his mother brushing her hair before going out at night, Frank stalks, murders, and scalps a woman one night, attaching her hair to a mannequin that he then keeps in his bedroom. Frank joins an online dating site, where he befriends a local girl named Lucie. The two eventually meet for what turns out to be a successful date. The pair return to Lucie's apartment, where she attempts to seduce the virginal Frank; Frank, feeling overwhelmed by homicidal impulses, insists that he likes Lucie and that he must leave before something bad happens. Lucie, mistaking Frank's panic for nervousness, becomes sexually aggressive and begins performing fellatio. Though he attempts to control himself, Frank eventually strangles and then scalps Lucie. Frank takes her hair back to his apartment, where he attaches it to another mannequin. One morning, Frank awakens to find a photographer named Anna taking photos of the mannequins in his storefront. Frank invites her into his store, where she becomes taken with his work restoring antique department store mannequins. The two develop a friendship, with Frank agreeing to help Anna put together an art exhibit using his mannequins. As the two spend more time together, Frank begins to fall in love, and becomes more aggressive about trying to control his urges, attempting to take pharmaceuticals to quiet his impulses. Nonetheless, one night he follows a woman home from her dance studio and stabs her to death in a parking lot; once again, he scalps her and attaches her hair to a mannequin in his bedroom. As the date of the exhibit opening approaches, Frank learns that Anna has a boyfriend, sending him into an emotional tailspin. At the opening of the exhibit, Frank meets Anna's boyfriend, Jason, who takes an instant disliking to Frank and insists he is a homosexual. Frank also meets Anna's mentor, and art director Rita, an older woman who encourages Anna to leave Los Angeles to seek more opportunities. In a drunken state, Rita later mocks Frank, first sexually propositioning him and then teasing him for his interest in mannequins. Frank follows Rita home, subduing her in her bathtub and then hog-tying her on her bed. Frank begins addressing Rita as his mother, expressing his rage for her treatment of him and articulating his feelings of being unloved, unwanted, and abandoned. Remembering a night he begged his mother to stay at home with him instead of going out to work, only to be left alone yet again, Frank flies into a rage and scalps Rita while she is still alive. Several nights later, Frank calls Anna, who tearfully tells him of Rita's murder and of a fight she had with Jason, resulting in their breakup. Frank comes to Anna's apartment, where his attempts to comfort her lead to them nearly having sex. Anna expresses feelings of guilt for Rita having been murdered following her show, which Frank dismisses by saying that Rita lived nearby and that she knew the risks of her own neighborhood. Anna becomes suspicious that Frank knows where Rita lived. While attempting to cover for himself; Frank inadvertently confesses to Anna by connecting Rita's murder to the previous ones. As the police had not told her anything about the other murders and a possible serial killer, Anna realizes that Frank's "insider's knowledge" means he is in fact the murderer. The two fight, with Anna stabbing Frank through the hand with a butcher knife before locking herself in her bedroom. Anna's neighbor, Martin, breaks into the apartment to save her, only for Frank to maim him with a meat cleaver, however gets back up only to be knocked back down again and killed. Breaking down Anna's bathroom door, Frank puts her into a choke hold and knocks her unconscious. At his apartment, Frank attempts to remove Anna from the back of his car; Anna, having regained consciousness, ambushes Frank and stabs him in the stomach with a piece of rebar attached to a mannequin hand Frank had stored in his back seat. Anna flees and is picked up by a passing motorist, who panics at the sight of Frank and runs him down in his car. In the process of hitting Frank, the driver loses control and crashes into a bridge, flinging Anna through the windshield. A bloodied Frank hobbles to the mortally wounded Anna and scalps her as she dies. Frank returns to his apartment, attaching Anna's hair to a mannequin dressed in a bridal gown. Dying from his injuries, Frank suffers hallucinations of the mannequins transforming into his victims and tearing his body apart, finally ripping off his face to reveal a mannequin head. Before he dies, Frank sees Anna- clad in a wedding dress- lower her veil and turn her back on him. Later that day, a SWAT team breaks into Frank's apartment, only to find a bloodied, dead Frank in his closet.